Turkish prosecutors have issued detention warrants for seven suspects in an investigation into alleged racketeering, usury and money laundering tied to the takeover of a luxury resort on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
Five suspects, Cihan Ekşioğlu, Şaban Kayıkçı, Sinan Görkem Gökçe, Çağlar Şendil and Melike Yüksel, were taken into custody during police raids in İstanbul, according to a written statement by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Ekşioğlu, a defense-industry entrepreneur and chairman of EKBA Holding, attracted public attention after his name appeared in 2021 in a series of exposés by crime boss Sedat Peker. Peker accused Ekşioğlu of facilitating a network of political and business figures involved in the resort’s alleged takeover.
Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, a businessman facing federal money-laundering charges in the United States, is among two suspects who remain at large and are believed to be abroad.
The investigation centers on claims that the group exploited the financial distress of a tourism company to gain control of its main asset: an ultra-luxury seaside resort in Bodrum, a popular holiday destination. The property, once known as the Paramount Hotel, has since been rebranded as The Plaza Bodrum.
Prosecutors allege that beginning in 2019, the suspects extended high-interest loans to Ufuk Turizm, the hotel’s operating company, and then acquired the property’s “surface rights,” a transferable legal right in Turkish law allowing a person or company to build on or use land without owning it outright. The group is accused of illegal profits at the expense of the hotel owners after assuming those rights, which eventually led to the fraudulent sale of the property without the owners receiving any payment.
The charges include usury, forming a criminal organization and money laundering.
The Bodrum property has long been a source of controversy and has come to symbolize the growing number of forced or legally engineered takeovers of valuable assets from distressed owners through loan-sharking schemes.
Following the detention warrants, prosecutors also ordered the seizure of The Plaza Bodrum and the shares of the company managing the property. The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a state-run body that assumes control of assets after government-ordered seizures, will now run the company, according to an official statement released by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Who is Sezgin Baran Korkmaz?
Korkmaz, 48, is one of Turkey’s most controversial businessmen. Born in Kars, eastern Turkey, he built SBK Holding from scratch, investing in finance, real estate and energy in Turkey and abroad.
He gained international attention after US prosecutors accused him of laundering more than $133 million linked to the Washakie Renewable Energy tax-credit fraud, a major biofuel scheme that defrauded the US Treasury. Korkmaz was extradited from Austria to the United States in July 2022 and charged in United States v. Sezgin Baran Korkmaz (District of Utah, No. 2:21-cr-00140) with money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.
The trial, last scheduled for March 10, 2025, has not yet resulted in a verdict or dismissal. Court filings reviewed by Turkish Minute confirm that the case remains pending, and the US Department of Justice has not announced any new developments since his extradition.
Before his extradition, Korkmaz was detained in Austria in 2021 on a US warrant and later released while awaiting proceedings. Turkish prosecutors have also investigated him for money laundering and illicit enrichment, though those cases never went to trial.
In a 2024 interview with journalist Fatih Altaylı, Korkmaz denied wrongdoing and accused Turkish officials of manipulating financial crime reports for political purposes.
The resort at the center of the case
The seaside resort in Bodrum opened in 2014 as the Golden Savoy before being rebranded successively under the Jumeirah, Paramount and Be Premium names. The property was sealed by local authorities in December 2024 after a court annulled its environmental impact report amid accusations of unlicensed construction.
In 2021 the hotel featured prominently in Peker’s viral videos, which alleged that politicians and businesspeople stayed there free of charge. The daughter of the original owner, Victoria Uras, accused Ekşioğlu of taking over the hotel “by force,” claiming he once arrived with a military-owned armored vehicle at the premises in a show of power, an allegation that drew national attention at the time.